It is getting increasingly
clear that the Sang Parivar has a dangerous agenda to take back the country
to the dark ages. Note the brazen and untenable action of the Uttar Pradesh
government headed by an ex. RSS man, Ram Prakash Gupta, when it decided to repeal
the Uttar Pradesh Hindu Public Religious Institutions (Prevention of Dissipation
of Properties) (Temporary Powers) Act, 1962. The Act had a laudable object,
as given in the preamble have preventing dissipation and regulating transfer
of the properties of Religious Institutions. Though this Act was originally
to remain in force for a period of two years, it was continued, obviously because
of the felt necessity right through various governments presided over by different
political parties including that of the BJP. Section 6 of the Act empowers the
State government that where it apprehends that the property of any institutions
is likely to be dissipated it may direct the investigating officer to make a
survey of such institutions. Section 7 requires a prior approval of the commissioner
for transfer of the property of the Institution.

The commissioner
has also been given the power to take measures for the protection of the property
of or under the domain of the institution and also for the recovery of the property
lost to the institution.

It will be seen
that the 1962 Act was to serve a public purpose in preventing misappropriation
of the property of the religious institution which situation is unfortunately
quite prevalent even today. I myself in my judicial capacity has occasions to
deal with some disputes amongst the pujaries of temples in Delhi- these temples
enjoy tremendous popularity and their offerings run into lakhs; they all presented
a sad spectacle of gross defalcation and misappropriation of funds, but on the
absence of similar legislations in Delhi there was very little that one could
do.

The puerile explanation
by the Chief Minister of UP that it was withdrawn because of a possible misuse
of the official machinery is a gratuitous insult to himself, considering that
officials are under his direct control. If such convoluted excuses are to be
accepted then the whole machinery of the Sales Tax, Excise Tax, etc, would have
to be abolished, a prospect no sane administrator can even imagine.

UP governments
action (in deciding to repeat the 1962 Act) is still more indefensible considering
that the Supreme Court has held that the protection under clause (b) of Article
26 to manage religious affairs does not extend to management of secular affairs.
The constitutional validity of a tougher legislation like Bihar Hindu Trust,
1951 was upheld by the Supreme Court negativing the arguments that it violates
the fundamental rights enshrined in Article 25 of the Constitution. The Court
negatived the argument that the provisions which empower the State officials
to see that the funds of the institution are spend in accordance with the object
of the trust are in any way violating the fundamental rights of a religious
denomination to manage its own affairs.

The action of the
UP Chief Minister is still more inexcusable considering that it has unabashedly
been done under the pressure of the so called Sadhus and purported religious
organizations. More dangerous is the trend, which the Chief Minister has set
by permitting Hindu religious bodies in influencing secular activities of the
State. Until now one of the wholesome distinctiveness of Hindu Kings had been
that in spite of the respect and the veneration given to the best of saints,
the affairs of the State were the whole preserve of kings. There was no priestly
class influencing worldly decisions - the spiritual was the domain of the priests,
temporal secular worldly affairs of the King.

How dangerous is
the implications of the new President being set up by Gupta can be gauged by
the havoc being wrought in Sri Lanka by the active intrusion of Budhiest priests
in politics and secular decision - making of Lankan government policy. We must
prevent the incursion of priesthood in our body politic if we wish to preserve
our proud legacy of multi - religious, multi-cultural plural society.

It is still more
tragic because this decision ignores the lessons of the historic battle fought
by the Sikhs to have the Sikh Gurdwara Act passed which enabled the Gurdwaras
to be saved from the loot by mahants and to be vested in a statutory body and
thus prevent the misuse of funds and properties. The whole of South India is
replete with laudable legislations. One of the shining examples is the beneficial
use of these funds at Tirupati Temple (Andhra Pradesh.), which apart from other
useful activities is even endowing a University.

I find that this
is not an isolated inane act of an individual politician; it fits in with the
overall strategy of the RSS in communalizing the atmosphere and to encourage
fundamentalism in the body politic. This is borne out by the proposal of the
University Grants Commission (UGC) to introduce at the University level courses
of study in Vedic Astrology and ritualism, which can only encourage obscurantist
trends. It is not my propose to be little the contributions made by the Vedas
to human knowledge and spiritual journey; my objection is to introduce holy
books of one religion in our multi religious society. There are any number of
institutions, Gurukuls opened by the Arya Samaj and other religious organizations,
which specialize in teachings of Vedas. Let the NRI for whose, alleged benefit
these courses are supposed to be introduced make funds available to those institutions
to be able to serve their needs. But for God's sake do not spoil our country's
secular base. Mr. Hari Om, the Chairman of UGC has stated that introduction
of these courses will increase the prospect of employment abroad amongst NRI
and also spread of culture. I did not know that we needed raw graduates for
in cantation of "rituals" to spread the message of our ancient civilization.
One should have thought that our civilization's strength rested on much maturer
scholarship and historical recognition. Let us be clear first priority is to
eradicate illiteracy, which is according to government statistics, at a shocking
level of 45% of the total population.

I can only feel
sad that the allies in the Union Government are indifferent to the danger our
basic values of rationalism and secularism are being poisoned by fundamentalism
under the influence of the Sangh Parivar. When will they listen to a wake up
call. The nation awaits their response.